From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel
Chapter 191: Watch Your Son (2)

Chapter 191: Watch Your Son (2)

"Why are you here, Mrs. Rodriguez? You can see that we’re busy, right?"

Ari asked Carlos’ mom again while doing his best to hide his irritation.

Although he usually didn’t care how he spoke to people, especially after they had yelled at him, he didn’t want to be rude to the parent of somebody he called a friend.

Carlos’s mom looked around incredulously, as if she couldn’t believe Ari was speaking to her like this.

"You’re quite a rude kid, you know that?"

At the familiar words, Ari couldn’t help but laugh.

"You are not the first to tell me that, and you will most likely not be the last. You can see that we’re preparing for something, so I’m trying to understand why you’re here. Is there a family emergency going on or..." Ari glanced between Mrs. Rodriguez and Gabriella, who subtly shook her head.

"Who do you think you are to speak to me like this or block me from speaking to my son?" She turned to look at Levi, whose sharp, ice-blue eyes were glaring at her, before turning back to Ari. "Go and bring my son to me now!"

"Obviously, I can’t do that. Since the kids look fine, this is clearly not an emergency, so can you just leave? Please? If need be, you can speak to Carlos after our performance is done, but right now, you’re being a bother."

"A bother? You’re calling me a bother?"

"What else would you be? Constantly calling and harassing your son and the staff members that work with him because you need him back? For what? To watch his siblings? To work in the shop?"

"Oh! So you know that he’s needed and yet you keep him away! You’re the one who corrupted my Carlito, so he thinks his family is a burden and refuses to help out anymore! It’s your fault."

"Mom! We don’t need Carlos to watch us!" Gabriella tried to yell back, but was quickly shut down.

"Be quiet, mija, I’m speaking!"

"But mom-"

"I said quiet."

As Gabriella sulked, Ari almost rubbed his aching head before remembering the stylist’s words.

"Look, Mrs. Rodriguez, I don’t know your family dynamic, and quite frankly, that’s not important to me. The truth of the matter is that those are his siblings, not his kids, and they’re not his responsibility; they’re yours. I get that you need to help family, but asking your eldest son to give up his dream and drop everything whenever you want him to is absolutely selfish of you as a parent."

"And who do you think you are to be telling me this?"

"I’m his teammate and a friend. Carlos is an essential part of our team and performance. Without him, we wouldn’t be able to succeed in our performance today. I already told you this over the phone repeatedly, stop calling and harassing him to come back.

"You, you’re loco!"

"I think you’re the crazy one to come here and act like this while your son is trying to achieve his dreams."

Carlos’ mom snorted as she shook her head.

"What dreams? You’re talking about the nonsense of him waking up one day and deciding he wants to be an idol? I thought he had finally outgrown that nonsense and knew I should have said no to him coming here. It’s gotten to his head, and he thinks he’s above his family now, even though he’s not achieved anything. It’s not even guaranteed that he’ll succeed by doing this. He’s just a little better singer than some people. If it’s something he really wants to do, he can join the church choir again. He should be helping out his family instead of wasting time on this little hobby. If it were academics, I could understand, but an idol? It’s truly nonsense."

At the words that put down Carlos’ dream as nonsense and his talent as just a little better at singing than some people, Ari blinked before responding in an even tone as he could manage, "I think that’s a very cruel thing to think and most especially to say to your child. And I think it’s sad to trivialize his skill and dream as a little hobby."

"What does a little brat like you know?"

"Enough to know that what you’re doing to Carlos is wrong. His siblings are not his children, and he shouldn’t have to sacrifice his dreams for his family. You trivialize his dreams and talent, calling them nonsense. Have you ever seen him perform? Seen him on stage? Heard him sing recently? In the time we’ve been on the show, have you ever bothered to watch your son perform at all? Or is his only value to you what he can do to help his family? When you can call him and he drops everything to run home, abandoning his team and previous commitments for something that wasn’t even an emergency? Does that sound right to you?"

At Ari’s rude questions, Carlos’ mom snapped her mouth shut as her facial expression waffled between guilt and anger.

In the end, anger won, and she glared at Ari, "I’d like to speak to your parents and tell them they’ve raised a very mouthy child with no respect."

"My parents are dead, so please watch your mouth. But even if they weren’t, they have always told me to speak my mind without worrying about any consequences, especially when someone was rude to me first. I am trying to be as respectful as I can because of Carlos, but I’d appreciate you keeping my parents out of your mouth if you want to insult me."

At Ari’s blunt words, everyone’s faces turned pale.

Ari continued his words, "Personally, I think you and Carlos need to have a conversation, and obviously, this is not the time or location for it. As I mentioned earlier, we have a performance and you’re interrupting. You’re the adult here, but I recommend you find some composure and, for once, watch your son do what he loves and find some empathy to support him. If you can’t even do that, then at least don’t do things that would put him in a bad position. Once the performance is done, you can probably make time to talk since our schedule should be clearer."

Before Ari could say anything more, someone knocked on the door before opening it, and as he glanced back, he saw that it was Carlos standing there with an apologetic Jamie.

"Ari, I’ll take it from here."

Seeing that Carlos looked calm, Ari nodded and stood up.

"Got it. Regardless, I’m the outsider here, so I’ll let you both have a brief, very brief conversation. Mrs. Rodriguez, take my words to heart and watch your son do what he loves to do."

Nodding at Carlos once more, Ari stepped out of the room with Levi, and silently took a spot against the wall by the door.

He planned to wait for the conversation to finish or interrupt if it seemed to run too long.

Levi and Jamie joined him in leaning the wall on either side of him, and all three boys were silent before Levi unexpectedly broke it.

"... Do you have any siblings?"

At the unexpected question from Levi, Ari didn’t have to think about his response at all, since his stance on the matter had never changed.

"Me? I have never wanted siblings a day in my life, and both of my parents are dead, so clearly it will never happen."

He was very proudly and very intentionally an only child and had truly never seen the appeal of having siblings.

The three of them leaned quietly on the wall, each having their own thoughts as they waited.

And finally-

Thankfully, things seemed to go well, and after about 15 minutes, Mrs. Rodriguez stomped out while Gabriella, Luis, and Antonio

"Good?"

"Yeah. I’m good...sorry, and thanks. To all of you." Although his eyes were a bit red, Carlos face looked determined without a hint of fear and anxiety.

"Yep. Now let’s go prep to nail this performance."

Ari clasped hands with Carlos before turning to Levi.

"Thanks for your help, too."

"I didn’t do anything?"

"Your face is enough. Let’s go."

Levi: ".....??"

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"And what about me? You know Carlos is stronger than he looks? My arms hurt!" Jamie complained as he rubbed his sore arms.

"Of course he’s strong, he works part-time as a mechanic," Ari replied nonchalantly.

"And you asked me to hold him back?"

"You’re always bragging about those muscles, right? Put them to good use."

"I’ll get you for this later." Jamie glared lightly at Ari before shrugging as if to loosen his body, then shooting a not-so-secret glance at Carlos.

"Let’s have a good performance and show your mom how amazing of a job you do."

"Haha okay. Let’s do it."

With all four of them in agreement, they went back to join their teammates.

Carlos apologized for the issue to both their team and staff members, and after a quick warmup, they prepared to head onto the stage.